Evaluation of Thermal Imaging Method for Diagnosing and Grading Of Varicocele Using Wavelet Transform Features

Varicocele is the abnormal dilation and tortuosity of venous plexus (venous) above the testicles. The pattern of abnormal heat distribution in the scrotum can be diagnosed using thermal imaging. Thermal imaging is a distant, non-contact, and non-invasive method.
Subjects and This study is descriptive-analytical one. Using a non-contact infrared camera (SDS Hotfind L) and taking images of 50 patients with varicocele. Capabilities of thermography were studied and evaluated. The variables studied in this research include age, marital status, smoking, and temperature of (Scrotum, Pampiniform venous plexus).
In two cases, with the help of heat distribution, varicocele was detected using a thermal camera; one was thermal asymmetry and increased temperature in venous plexus pampiniform and the other was differences in features obtained from wavelet transform in healthy and varicloceled cases. If the index was only the diagnosis of varicocele, according to Gold standard of Doppler ultrasound, the sensitivity of thermography was 70 % with 88.23 %specificity.
The results of this study indicate that the thermography for the diagnosing varicocele is more suitable way as a complementary method. Additionally, testicular thermography can be used for early and rapid screening with many samples sizes in places such as barracks and areas where the use of ultrasound devices cannot be used.